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Page Pate (Photo: John Disney/ALM)[/caption] A Virginia importer of Chinese mirrored furniture that became popular when Kim Kardashian selected it for her mansion bedroom has agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle claims it improperly evaded federal anti-dumping duties, the U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday. The settlement of the whistleblower suit against Bassett Mirror Inc. follows a similar $15 million settlement last year by Bassett's co-defendant, Z Gallerie of California, said Atlanta attorney Page Pate. Pate represents whistleblower Kelly Renee Wells, who filed the suit. Wells, a merchant in Huntsville, Alabama, sells furniture online, the lawyer said. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Georgia in Savannah who intervened in the case secured both settlements, Pate said. Prosecutors filed a notice of settlement with Bassett on Dec. 22. The case was unsealed Dec. 27. "Those who import and sell foreign-made goods in the United States must comply with the laws meant to protect domestic companies and American workers from illegal foreign trade practices," said Chad A. Readler, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Division. Newly-minted U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine of Georgia's Southern District said, "This office will not tolerate anyone who seeks to stack the deck against American workers and products." Christine added that he will continue "to pursue those who believe that their own profit justifies evasion of federal anti-dumping duties." Pate said federal prosecutors have told him that the combined $25.5 million constitutes the largest federal False Claims Act case in which prosecutors have intervened in the Southern District of Georgia. Under the terms of the False Claims Act, Wells is eligible for a percentage of the money recouped by the government in unpaid import duties. Pate said Wells received 16 percent of the Z Gallerie settlement and is set to receive 18 percent of the Bassett Mirror settlement. Pate said federal prosecutors declined to pursue import duty claims against retailers Macy’s and the Neiman Marcus Group, which were also named as defendants in Wells' whistleblower case. Pate said he does not intend to pursue claims against Neiman Marcus now that the suit has been unsealed. “We think they were defrauded by Bassett,” he said. But he continued, “Macy’s, we think, does have some exposure, and we intend to pursue Macy’s on our own.” The lawyer said he filed the suit after Wells contacted him in 2013 when she discovered she could not compete with prices of large retailers who, like her, were buying the mirrored bedroom furniture from China and should have faced similar anti-dumping duties. Pate said Wells discovered that Z Gallerie and Bassett Mirror Co. appeared to be misclassifying the imported bedroom furniture as living room, hall or bath furniture in order to circumvent the 216 percent duty that's been imposed since 2004. But the misclassified imported furniture items would be included in retail bedroom furniture displays, the lawyer said. Pate said the whistleblower suit stemmed from duties imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department to protect domestic manufacturers from Chinese manufacturers, who were dumping wooden bedroom furniture subsidized by the Chinese government into the U.S. market. Anti-dumping duties may be imposed by the Commerce Department at the request of domestic manufacturers who believe overseas manufacturers are engaging in unfair competition, the lawyer explained. “You can bring in as many hall chests as you want from China without paying extra duty,” Pate explained. “But if that piece of furniture is designed for the bedroom, that duty triggers.”